What do you do if your employees don't understand your brand values?

If employees don't understand your brand values, the "Stop vehicle - visit workshop"-light on your corporate dashboard should come on in bright red. It means that they were not part of the values development, probably because strategy was imposed on them top-down. Employee involvement in strategy development and value formulation is critical to ensure unity of vision. It is then time to visit the workshop (or workshops) to close the vision gap between them and management. In this, listening to understand, and identifying the barriers to unity of vision, play an important role. Only once that has happened can one start thinking of ways to create full buy-in and position employees as your primary brand ambassadors.

1- Avaliação da cultura organizacional: Realize pesquisas ou avaliações regulares para medir a compreensão e a aderência dos colaboradores aos valores da marca. Use essas informações para identificar áreas de melhoria e implementar mudanças se necessário. 2- Liderança inspiradora Os líderes precisam ser mais protagonistas na modelagem dos valores da marca. Eles devem ser exemplos vivos desses valores em suas ações e decisões diárias. 3- Reforço positivo: Reconheça e recompense os comportamentos que estão alinhados com os valores da marca. Assim reforçará a importância desses valores e incentivará outros colaboradores a segui-los também.

Solicit inputs on how the values can be better integrated into the organization and how they perceive their alignment with them. Craft your campaigns and messages accordingly.

There's a world of difference between prescribed values (what leaders *think* should be values) vs. lived values (what is true to your employees' experience). After conducting employee research, hone in on what truly makes your organization special. Spoiler alert: It's probably not "teamwork," "innovation," or "integrity." These are table stakes for any company – and your competition. Southwest's "Fun-LUV-ing Attitude" is not a value you see from most airlines. Ben & Jerry's "Social & Economic Justice" is not one lived by most ice cream makers. Find what makes you uniquely you – that you can't just plop into a competitor – because everyone will have experiences that back it up, will see it modeled, and use it to guide decision-making.

Consistently Talk about Values in every forum. Develop a comprehensive communication strategy to consistently reinforce your brand values across all internal channels. Use a variety of communication methods such as emails, newsletters, intranet updates, and team meetings to educate employees about the values and their significance.

Success Stories are important. Recognize and celebrate employees who exemplify the brand values in their work. Share success stories, testimonials, or examples of employees living the values to inspire and motivate others.

Let’s take it a step further. Incorporate your values into your recognition system. This way, whenever people recognize each other, the values are there - in their face - and they have to choose what value is being exhibited. Having it in the recognition system plays two purposes: 1) It reinforces the values themselves. 2) It starts to provide living and breathing examples of what that value looks like in action.